Betty Bosomtwi Sam
PAINSTAKING investigations conducted by DAILY GUIDE have revealed that the two boys who went to the Western Regional office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) last Saturday and posed as personnel from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) were activists of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The alleged NDC thugs, who impersonated BNI officers, allegedly subjected the out-going regional NADMO boss, Padmore Kofi Yonkopa Arthur, to undue harassment on Saturday. According to sources, the boys who are staunch members of the ruling NDC in the Sekondi constituency were allegedly sent by the deputy Western Regional minister, Betty Bosomtwe-Sam, to confront the NADMO boss who was cleaning his office.
It would be recalled that the Monday, September 14, 2009 edition of the Ghanaian Chronicle carried a story on its front page with the banner headline “Drama In Sekondi, BNI Grabs NADMO Boss”.
The story alleged that officials from the BNI and the Police, last Saturday, went to the regional office of NADMO at the Regional Coordinating Council and arrested the regional boss for allegedly carting away office items, without the official notification of the Western Regional minister.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the two boys who accompanied the police posed as officers from the BNI and ordered the regional boss of NADMO to vamoose from the office and hand over the office keys to them.
However, information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicated that the western regional office of the BNI did not assign anyone to embark on the said operation at the NADMO office last Saturday.
When DAILY GUIDE contacted the regional BNI office at Kweikuma near Sekondi, the Second-in-Command, who declined to mention his name (the paper gathered his first name is Jarphet), pointed out that his outfit did not know anything about the case.
On whether the two gentlemen that posed as BNI personnel were really officers from the place, the 2i/c said his boss was not around and that he was not in the best position to answer that question.
When DAILY GUIDE asked whether at the time of the incident his superior was around, 2i/c of the regional BNI office said, “I have told you that my boss is not there and that is all I can say”. Attempts by DAILY GUIDE to reach the deputy regional minister for her comments proved futile as calls to her cell phone could not go through.
Meanwhile, the deputy minister, Betty Bosomtwe-Sam, confirmed on the morning show programme of KYZZ Fm in Takoradi that indeed, she sent the two boys and that they were not officers from the BNI.
She gave their names only as Ike and Mawuli who are members of the NDC in the Sekondi constituency where the deputy minister had tried on several occasions to represent in parliament but had failed.
In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, Mr. Yonkopa Arthur debunked the assertion by the Chronicle newspaper that he was grabbed by the BNI in Takoradi on Saturday. “I was never arrested as was alleged by the Chronicle and I have not taken anything that belonged to the NADMO office,” he stressed.
He explained that on Saturday September 12 2009, he, together with other staff of the office, went to tidy up the place in anticipation of a proper handing over of the office to one Jarphet Baidoo, an NDC activist, on Monday 14th September, 2009.
He continued that since he was going to hand over on Monday, he decided to take away his belongings at the office which included a table-top refrigerator and some books.
According to the out-going regional NADMO boss, his office had neither a television set nor a computer that he decided to take away as was alleged by the Chronicle newspaper.
A visit by DAILY GUIDE to the NADMO office revealed that the refrigerator indeed belonged to the out-going officer as there were no inscriptions on it to indicate that it belonged to the organization. When asked whether the refrigerator had been handed over to him, he answered in the affirmative, adding that he never took a pin from the office.
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